Pierre Dupont – Putting Heart into Our Community June 16, 2010
Posted by admin in : News , 1 comment so farI’ve been acquainted with Pierre Dupont for a long while but it’s only recently that I’ve gleaned personal information on this capable, intelligent, kind and giving man. I noticed Pierre a few years ago in Freshies sitting with mutual friends. We weren’t introduced but later I was told Pierre had started Fernie Book Exchange, free books at Freshies and Tea House where people can take or leave a book. “I think I bought my house in summer of 2003 when we had all those forest fires, so this will be my seventh year here.
Before moving to Fernie I spent five years as chairman of the Slocan Valley Heritage Trail Society, during the design and development phase of the 50km Slocan Valley Rail Trail,” says Pierre.
In Fernie he sits on the board as treasurer for Fernie and District Arts Council and Fernie Writer’s Conference Society and is also Director of Fernie Media Society as well as working on the Arts Station concert committee. He began ferniepets.ca and fernietv.com that are benefitting our community greatly although few people realize this.
Originally from Ontario, Pierre came to Fernie for the outdoor recreational opportunities. With education in technology he became employed for the Nortel and Motorola companies designing radio, telephone and cellular software as well as creating power saving techonology. He created over a dozen innovations patented in the US, Europe, Japan and other countries by the companies he worked for. “You don’t own them I ask?” Pierre laughs and says “the company owns them, they pay you to invent them.”
Pierre doesn’t have cable service so in order to watch council meetings he put them on the web. “ fernietv was created to deliver community programming not shown over traditional broadcast and cable television media. The goals of the site are to provide local video programming to visitors and residents of Fernie, Elk Valley, keeping the community informed about local issues and events and to improve access to municipal government by making public meetings over the internet on demand from any location. It uses Adobe Flash media, a private flash media server supports streaming video longer than ten minutes duration; contributions from local video producers are welcomed,” Pierre says.
He started with his laptop, a process that took all day; he ran the server from his PC, then purchased a dedicated server with proper bandwidth. Today the site features Fernie and Sparwood city council, local events and the volunteer program that I do. Josh Marr, a local film maker and camera man for Shaw says “I get asked often where to find city council meetings, I direct people to fernietv.com. It’s a great way to tap into local government for anyone interested in knowing what’s going on. It’s good to have a website dedicated to pure community content; I encourage everyone to check it out.
When Pierre isn’t found filling in for Josh at council meetings or taping most local events he can be found managing Fernie Pets, the lost and found site for animals, “we hope to create a group of foster homes so that instead of dogs sitting in the pound we can put them in a home until the owner is found, we don’t want to leave them in a kennel for too long, they need to socialize, its really good that the city now has dedicated off leash parks, dogs do better when they are running free”.
If volunteers are the heart of the community then Pierre is certainly right in the middle because he’s surely putting lots of heart into what he does for our community.
Miss Elkford 2010 June 7, 2010
Posted by admin in : News , add a commentIt was an honour for me to be one of the judges of the Miss Elkford Youth Ambassador program this past Saturday.
The committee of Stephanie Hrisook, Debbie Kliment and Lynn Lundrigan and Judge Chair Robyn Graham was quick to point out that this wasn’t a beauty pageant.
This was a six month commitment for the lucky participants who were given instruction in public speaking by Cindy Gallinger, information on automotive Maintenance by Barry Modin, a community History by Joanne McKerracher and Kathy Scott and resume and interview techniques by Glen Campbell.
The girls were also taught about financial planning by Cindy Hesje and Shauna Klein, healthy relationships and dating violence by Avery Hulbert and Sara Legacy, modeling by Madawna Wiggins and Jody Sammer, nutrition and self esteem by Claire Pinette and Etiquette by Kateri Holmes. Dance instruction was given by Coraley Letcher, Drug and Alcohol Awareness by Kerri Wall and make up Application by Stephanie Hrisook.
Results of this training were obvious during the final day of the program that had three judges, Kateri Holmes from Alberta experienced in judging annual pageants and also in television media, Erin Aasland Hall instructor at the Cranbrook College of the Rockies and a long time judge for the Sam Steele Pageant and a past Sam Steele princess, head judge Robyn Graham, long-time organizer of the judging portion of Sam Steele Pageant and myself as a first time pageant judge.
The day began at eight thirty for the judges who had to come up with six questions each for the individual twenty five minute interview which began with an easy “give us three words to describe yourself” to questions about the oil spill disaster, local government, fostering unity between Elk Valley communites and suggestions about what they would change about the program.
The girls were marked on a point system for how they carried themselves, their manners, speech, knowledge of questions asked and appropriate choice of dress as this was considered a job interview.
A lunch was provided by the girls and their families so that the judges could observe the girls in an informal atmosphere as well.
At six-thirty the public portion of the program began with a great dance number performed by the four contestants to a packed sold out crowd in the Rec Center that included Sam Steele Sweethearts from last year and contestants from this year.
The evening was hosted by Lorrie –Anne MacLeod who did an amazing job of keeping the evening moving along in a very professional manner.
After introduction of the judges and the auditor, Nikki Scott, Megan Nixon, Kenzie Bauer and Victoria McArthur gave speeches and put on a “frugal fashion show”. Each girl was given thirty dollars to come up with an economical outfit that looked fabulous which they did.
The talent part of the evening wowed the audience, Victoria with a violin number, Kenzie singing, Megan on piano and Nikki with a martial arts presentation that included breaking several boards with foot and elbow.
When each one came down the aisle on the arm of a good looking RCMP officer in red serge they were breathtaking in their gowns. It’s obvious Elkford has young women that are talented, intelligent and beautiful.
Points were tallied by the auditor and results placed in sealed envelopes until winners were announced.
Kenzie Bauer was chosen as Miss Elkford and Megan Nixon Miss Elkford Princess.
This pageant was a wonderful opportunity for the girls to learn about a variety of topics that will serve them well in the future. It was also a great way to bond and become great friends. Kudos to the committee, the volunteers and all the sponsors for making this event happen.